Programming of mobile stations is fairly well known. Upon purchasing a mobile station (e.g., a cellular phone), the user generally takes the phone to a service provider (Cellular One, U.S. Cellular, etc.) to have it activated. Upon the user opening an account, the service provider will program the user's phone with NAM (Number Assignment Module) information to configure the phone to operate within the system provided by the service provider. Once activated, if the user wishes to add enhanced features offered by the service provider, or to delete enhanced features for which the user has already subscribed, the user must take the mobile station to the service provider and have the enhanced features added to, or deleted from, his/her account.
Mobile stations also generally have the ability to receive NAM information over the air via an R-Data transport mechanism. NAM information is generally categorized into various levels, with only certain information transmittable, for security and other reasons, to the mobile station over the air. Transmission of NAM information over the air is not level dependent, but rather depends on the particular type of NAM information being sent. As previously noted, the NAM information generally controls how the mobile station interacts and accesses the cellular communication system within which it operates, such as, but not limited to, an IS-136 system.
For instance, a user purchasing a mobile station (e.g., a cellular phone) from a vendor may wish to activate his/her phone without having to physically take the phone to a service provider (Cellular One, U.S. Cellular, etc.) for activation. The service provider's service shop may be located geographically too far away from the user, or the user may simply not have the time to take the phone in and have it activated. The user has the option of contacting the service provider by phone, other than the purchased cellular phone, providing a credit card number and having the service provider activate their cellular phone over the air. Activation consists of the service provider basically downloading, over the air, the NAM information configuring the phone to interact within its system. This saves the user the time and inconvenience of having to physically travel to the service provider's service shop. Certain of the downloaded NAM information may also be changed in a similar manner. However, as previously noted, not all NAM information is transmittable over the air.
In the case of a company providing mobile stations such as cellular phones to its employees for work use, the company may not wish the employee to originate or receive calls when the employee takes a mobile station out of its home system, i.e., is roaming. Alternatively, the company may wish the employee to originate or receive only certain calls when the employee takes a mobile station out of its home system. Currently, the company must instruct the employee to physically bring the mobile station in to its service shop to have the mobile station reconfigured accordingly, since this type of user preference information is menu driven. This may provide great inconvenience to both the company and employees who are remotely located.
The same inconvenience is present for parents who may purchase mobile stations for their family members, i.e., their children. The parent of a child who is away at college and who is abusing his/her parents' generosity by making 900# calls, long distance calls, and the like, may have no choice other than to continue incurring these charges or have the service provider disable the phone. Since mobile stations are extremely helpful in emergency situations where a person may not have access to a conventional wire-line telephone, a parent may be hesitant in having the phone disabled, and may simply continue incurring the charges rung up by his/her child.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the above-mentioned problems.